Getting on in life...

So, it has finally happened; I am officially getting old.  This is in no part my fault.  It is of course my wife's fault.  She had the indecency to turn 30 last week.  Also, I suppose I could apportion some blame to my daughter, who turns 2 next week.  As ever, the world moves on at pace and I feel myself content to sit by watch it all happen.  Forever young is what I say.

Jocelyn at the the park

The weather has been pretty good of late, and we have made some excursions to the park, so Jocelyn can meet the new birds at the aviary (if only she was a boy.....!).  We nearly made it to the model railway, but the fact that I had to have a coffee made sure there was no change left....how selfish of me, yet who am I to stand in the way of a strong caffeine addiction?

Captured and forced to wear All Blacks shirts...

We also made it down to Wellington to watch the second test of the All Blacks vs the Springboks.  A superb game, and indeed superb evening was had.  We have also identified the worst curry house in the entire world.  It proved my theory of "...its run by Indians, so it can't be too bad..." to be a complete pile of horse-shite.  Never before have I had floppy poppadoms, or have I tasted butter chicken so bad.  In fact the butter chicken was a tin of Heinz (or Watties, depending on the hemisphere you are in) cream of tomato soup with a few bits of chicken in; this restaurant (term used so very loosely) would win awards for crapness.  Of course being totally British, and sober, I did not let them know this at all........

Surf Casting legend...?

With trout fishing under the belt, I thought that I would give surf casting a go.  It is definately one of the funnier things that I have done in my life...  Armed with a 13.5 ft surf casting rod, a lead weight that could easily pass for an anti ship mine, 2 suicide hooks and some chopped up squid; off I went to Himatangi beach:


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I quickly realised that this was going to have to be a manly effort.  Middle of winter, off came the shoes and socks, trousers rolled up, and into the surf I waded.

The author, hard at work.

I also quickly realised that wielding this 13.5 ft monster was going to be tricky, especially if i wanted to avoid catching my own head.  My colleague who lent me the rod informed me that a cast of 100m was entirely possible....I was left questioning this when on the first attempt I nearly broke my foot with the anti ship mine...however this was no problem as in mid winter the water was a bit chilly, so I could not feel my feet anyway...

Perseverance was the key, and I was soon achieving casts of well in excess of 20m.  Well done me.   I believe that the fish were more in danger of being knocked out by the high arcing piece of lead, than them accidentally swallowing my hooks.

Still, I had a huge amount of fun and will definitely go back...maybe in summer though?!

Some paisley stripes to enhance...?

Ex Brimstone

Well, they say that a change is as good as a rest?  As usual I have fallen a bit behind in the blogging department.  I would like to say that is because I have been busy....well actually that is true, I have been busy.

What have we done?  Well, the was the Santoft Sizzler; a 5 hour mountain bike race through the forest near Bulls.  It was the first race that Liz has done, and she became a honorary member of team 'Lazy Crankers'.  The weather was awful, which I maintain contributed to my 5 'rapid dismounts', luckily the ground was soft.  As I have always said, "...if you don't fall off, then you aren't trying hard enough...".  Next race is scheduled for 11 September up in Taupo.

We also have the All Blacks vs Ireland test in New Plymouth.  This was possibly the wettest weekend in the history of weekends.  The rain was almost monsoon like in its torrential'ness.  Luckily we had our farmers jackets and Jocelyn had her gum boots.  We also became honorary Kiwis for the weekend, as I couldn't possibly ever lower myself to support the Irish.  And luckily we backed the winning horse, as it was a comprehensive victory, to say the least.

Complete with 'gumboots'

 I had the delights of Waiouru in the winter, which is a cold a desolate place at the best of times.  Add snow, rain and wind to the mix and then it does become really quite unpleasant.  The only plus side of the whole exercise was that I was able to keep tabs on the mountain, and watch the snow build up for the boarding season to start.

So a glorious 10 days on exercise with the look forward to at the end being a weekend on the slopes playing in all that snow that  had so miserable in previously.

Being the honourable man that I am I decided it would be prudent to join a colleague of mine and head to the slope a day early just to make sure that everything was in order, and nobody had moved the mountain etc...luckily they hadn't.  I also accidentally managed to buy a shiny new pair of Oakley goggles and a new pair of gloves that came with 2 free rabbits....how strange.

Despite the weather, Waiouru can be a
truly beautiful place

So, off we set on the friday morning with clear blue skies ahead of us.  We made good time, checked into the house and made our way to the mountain road.  Only to be stopped by the ruddy Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr John Key.  Apparently opening some poxy cycle path next to a giant carrot (maybe that explains the rabbits?), I mean, who does he think he is?  Closing off the road, and delaying my accent of the mountain.  At least the security dude was helpful "...excuse me good sir" I asked, "how does one get round this road block to ascend yonder mountain?".  "...follow that car, bro"  was the reply, with a vague point at a car in the far distance quite clearly travelling in the wrong direction.....marvellous.  Still, we made it; and what an awesome day out it was.  Not quite the whole of the mountain open, but certainly enough to have a damn good time.

The rest of the gang joined us in the evening, and after a few well deserved beers and pizza an early night ready for the following day.

Jocelyn on the slopes

This was Jocelyn's second time with snow, and she enjoyed (slightly grumpily!) it building snowmen and sledging about the place.  The photo (courtesy of our professional friend) is excellent, we think.

So, I am on leave now and hopefully the weather will improve slightly, and I'll be able to get up the slope later on this week.  Luckily I met Jesus (Son of God) whilst on our last weekend, and now complete with his phone number I have ask him to do some of the divine intervention stuff, so hopefully it will work?  Also I can confirm that Jesus was/is really a carpenter.